Wasted Societal Intellectual Capital

There have been many times recently when I've wanted to be an economist. The thing about economists that I'm particularly jealous of is their innate ability to spot inefficiencies. Well a few days ago, I had a moment when I thought like an economist. I think I've spotted a glaring inefficiency: college graduates who choose (for financial reasons or otherwise) to not pursue a career in their field of study during college.

Think of this, a student goes through four years of rigorous course work only to graduate and enter a career in a field totally unrelated to his college major. A career in which his college credentials were unecessary except for the notion that he has merely obtained a 4-year degree.

Consider the costs of this scenario:

1. Opportunity costs to society for 4 years of lost productive labor
2. Cost of student loans for the graduate
3. Cost to state and private institutions which subsidize the college education
4. Opportunity costs to individual for 4 years of lost full-time wages
5. Training costs to organization or company which hires the graduate
   

Consider the benefits of this scenario:

1. Individual gains increased societal stature for completion of a 4-year degree
2. Individual gains advantage over others without a 4-year degree

From a purely objective point of view, the benefits do not exceed the costs.

Now consider the benefits of a four year degree:

1. Individual gains immense knowledge and skill in his or her field of study
2. Individual gains increased societal stature for having obtained a 4-year degree

Consider the benefits of a graduate who enters his or her field of study as a career:

1. Societal capitalization on the stockpile of intellectual capital
   
2. Individual does not have to learn a new skill

Financial concerns aside, it is a matter of wasted societal intellectual capital when one decides to forsake his field of study for a career in a different and unrelated field. In many ways, it is a waste of four perfectly good years to study a field which one never intends to work in and contribute to later on.